Prof. Fred Lockwood
Emeritus Professor of Learning and Teaching
Manchester Metropolitan University, UK

Professor Lockwood began teaching education in Malawi in 1968. From 1975 until 2000, he worked at the UK Open University, where he received his PhD in 1990. He held a range of teaching and management positions at the OU's Institute of Educational Technology, including Deputy Director, and Head of the Professional Development in Educational Technology programme. In 2001 he joined Manchester Metropolitan University as Head of the Learning and Teaching Unit as well as Professor of Learning and Teaching.

His research interests range from psychometric to illuminative studies as reflected in personal and institutional research, and span all phases of course development. He has lent his expertise to over 20 international institutions of higher education and undertaken over 30 national and international consultancies. He has been a keynote speaker at over 24 conferences, has led numerous staff development activities, and been associated with the design, production, presentation and evaluation of open and distance learning materials at over 100 institutions.

Professor Lockwood's numerous publications include two authored books and 17 journal articles. In addition to sitting on the Editorial Boards of 11 journals, he is Series Editor of the Routledge Open and Distance Learning Series, the largest book series of its kind in the world.

Keynote address

This paper will identify three challenges facing education: increasing access to education, exploiting the use of communication and information technology (C&IT), and enhancing the quality of learning and teaching. It first asks how we are meeting the challenges of Millennium Goal 2, i.e. universal primary education by 2015, and the resulting ‘tidal wave' of students towards secondary and higher education institutions. It then asks if the appropriate media are being employed in education. PCs, PDAs and mobile devices are transforming the educational landscape and contributing to pedagogy; developed countries are exploiting the benefits of Managed Learning Environments; and initiatives directed at those in developing countries, like One Laptop Per Child and wireless technologies, are bringing the power of the Internet within reach of millions of learners. However, are the most appropriate and cost-effective educational media being deployed? The paper provides a framework by which the appropriateness of these media can be evaluated in order to best exploit the strengths of C&IT. Finally, this paper flags features of quality assurance practices that are repeatedly ignored but which have a profound effect upon the quality of learning. This is particularly relevant as competition amongst educational providers increases, and as those paying for educational products and services become more discerning.

Prof. Bebo White
Stanford University, USA

Professor Bebo White is a Departmental Associate (emeritus) at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Centre (SLAC), the national high-energy physics laboratory at Stanford University. In addition, he holds faculty appointments at the University of Hong Kong and the University of San Francisco. He was a member of the team that established at SLAC the first website in the United States and the fifth in the world. He is a frequent speaker at conferences and academic institutions, and for commercial organizations around the world. Professor White is a member of the International World Wide Web Conference Committee (IW 3C 2) and the Executive Committee of ACM SIGWEB, and holds advisory positions with numerous technical organizations. He is the author of nine books, has written over 100 journal articles on topics ranging from high-energy physics to Internet and Web technology, and is a managing editor of the Journal of Web Engineering. More information can be found at www.bebowhite.com.

Keynote address

The future is very bright with respect to how advanced Web and Internet technologies will contribute to teaching and learning processes. Web 2.0 is just beginning to explore the ways that the data on the Web can be used to build knowledge. Advanced search techniques will bring ways for teachers and students to harness and make the best use of the information the Web holds. New interface techniques will increase interactivity with Web resources leading to better learnability and creativity for the classroom. New software techniques will allow students and teachers to run rich Internet applications as desktop applications providing the same experience whether or not an Internet connection is available. We all face a major challenge regarding how to harness these new technologies to the benefit of our learning communities and how to best use them with the traditional forms of learning and teaching.